In this life, there are dreamers and doers. Thermometers and thermostats. Clydesdales and Thoroughbreds. What are you? Life will attempt to harness you with every chance it can get. Life will attempt to break you, to box you in, and discourage you. Life will attempt to put you into a position to drain the very life from you. It’s going to happen. It’s a guarantee. That being said, once the smoke clears and the dust settles, there really is only one question: What will be your response?
Our response is dependent upon what we know, what we know ourselves to be, and what we believe. You see some of us are Thoroughbred horses and others of us are Clydesdale horses. Now, thoroughbreds were born to race. They are strong, intelligent, and absolutely tenacious. They push and they push, then they push some more until they reach victory. Yet, like I said, life will try to harness even the thoroughbreds among us. So some of us may find ourselves stuck in a bridle. A bridle is the equipment you would use to harness, control and direct a horse that was meant to be ridden or to pull a carriage. You harness and bridle a Clydesdale. A Clydesdale is used, harnessed or bridled for the benefit of another. It will live it’s entire life carrying the load of another. Pulling another. Being used, for all that it is, by another. It will die in the bridle, and it will never know or experience anything outside of that life. I just want to scream this warning sometimes: Life will try to harness you. How will you respond?
So for descriptive purposes only: I’m a gosh darn Thoroughbred. Life has been constantly trying to harness me. Life is constantly trying to get me to look at my bank account or my possessions, what I may have, and what I don’t have to define myself. Life has been trying to consume me with weaknesses rather than capabilities. It’s been trying to defeat me with sickness. It’s been trying to whip me with low self-esteem. It’s tried to kick my teeth out with suicidal thoughts. But I’m a gosh…darn…Thoroughbred.
Knowing you have the ability, the potential, and the drive to be great without the opportunity is like being a thoroughbred trapped in a bridle. But a bridle doesn’t define the thoroughbred. You see to a thoroughbred, a bridle was meant to be broken. So it pushes, it pushes, and it pushes until it can do what it was created to do.
Yet and still, you have to make up your mind to break every single bridle until victory is yours. “I can-I will-I shall.”
“I can-I will-I shall.” This is what I’ve been hearing the thoroughbred pushing inside of me say lately. So I’ve been repeating it. “I can-I will-I shall.”
“I can” means I have the ability. I’ve acknowledged the fact that I’m a thoroughbred and not a Clydesdale. I’ve acknowledged that I have the potential for greatness. Yet, “I can” is not enough.
“I can-I will.” I will is the decision. “I will” means I’ve decided that this is what I want, and this is who I want to be. Yet and still. “I will”-is not enough. Lord knows there have been plenty of individuals in this life that have had the ability and potential but died with it. There have been millions of individuals that made up their mind to do and be something but came up short. Just having the ability and making a decision is not enough, because Life will try to harness you. So no matter what, “I can and I will” are destined to come up against challenges. “I can and I will” are going to run up against walls and run into NO’s. “I can and I will”, are going to be smacked in the face, whipped by Life, and have their teeth knocked out. Trust me, I’m there right now and I’m sure I will be there again, but I’ve had to progress forward. Simply, because I’m a gosh darn thoroughbred.
“I can. I will….I shall”. I shall is the fortitude. I shall is the juggernaut strength to tuck your head and run through walls. I shall is the Wilberforce mentality that says “no matter how many times I fall, I’ll rise with more strength”. I shall is the “I don’t care what comes! I’m going.”
“I shall” is more than ability. “I shall” is more than the decision. “I shall” is the refusal to quit. “I shall” is the rejection to accept Life lying down. “I shall” is the fortitude to break bridles, because Life will try to harness you. But you have to be a gosh darn Thoroughbred. Push Push and push some more until victory is yours.
I can. I will. I shall. How shall you respond?
Keenan,
As you know I love your blog. I really like this one. However, I don’t know if I agree that being a Clydesdale is necessarily a bad thing. I think it matters more on whose bridle you wear. If you wear a bridle of society yes you will do nothing in life but work and have nothing to show for it. However if your a Clydesdale and wears Christ bridle then your doing his work and will have everything. The same thing can be said for a Thoroughbread. Like you said they were born to race, but the question becomes who are you racing and why are racing. If your trying to achieve wealth, popularity or what society deems important than you could be racing the rest of your life.
I agree that Life will try to harness you and that is something you don’t want you want to run away from that. However Christ also tries to harness us into being the best that he invisioned us to be. Sometime I feel we get so caught up that we forget about that and just start to run away and will begin a race that should never have been started in the first place.
My point simply put is that there are pros and cons to being both a Clydesdale or a Thoroughbread. Being a Clydesdale is not a bad thing if your wearing a Christ bridle. Also being a Thoroughbread can become a problem to if your running a way from being harnessed and Christ is the one trying to harness you.
Karrie,
Great point and I absolutely agree with you. It seriously does depend on which bridle you are wearing. Important point that I may not have made well is that, when I speak of “Life harnessing”-its about adversity, fear, and self-defeating perspectives. Now, if someone happens to be a Clydesdale or has a Clydesdale’s mentality then they bow down to adversity, stress, and fear without a fight. I know that Christ was a Thoroughbred. He pushed through all types of adversity, torture, and even death! He pushed through so that he could BE who he was called to be- a gosh darn Thoroughbred!
I enjoyed reading the blog. I think that we should get permission to channel our youth to have access to and read it. You may have to shorten it a little because of their attention span. But, the youth need to be exposed to a positive spin on daily life. Everyone has a pulpit some have one in the church others have theirs on another platform. Regardless of the platform, the anointing is the same.
I would love to see something like that happen. That’s where this endeavor is at right now establishing the platform to share everything that the Lord shares with me and what I’m going through.